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Ifits Spicy Chicken & Chickpea Stew

Well, it’s been all change at Tidy Towers (or rather Tidy Towers has relocated three times) over the last year and half, and I’m kind of ashamed to discover that I only managed four recipes in 2016!

Now that I’m settled, let’s put that to rights with this proper winter warmer! It’s a true Ifits – I wanted to knock together something that was healthy, tasty, warming, and filling, so had a look in the cupboards and rustled up this beauty.

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts, diced

2tbsp smoked paprika

frylight

1 red onion, chopped

2 peppers

400g tin of baked beans (yes, baked beans)

1 tin of chickpeas

400ml chicken stock

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 small tin of sweetcorn

1 tbsp chilli flakes

2 tbsp plain flour

4 tbsp water

This made me two hefty portions, with no need for an accompaniment. It could easily do 3, or you could stretch it to four or more by serving with rice or potatoes.

Method

Give the chicken a good sprinkling of salt & ground black pepper, and add the paprika. Mix it in well, so all the chicken is coated.

Brown the Chicken in a casserole dish, over a medium heat, then remove from the dish and set aside.

Turn the heat down to low, and gently cook the onions & peppers for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Once softened, add the chicken back in, along with the baked beans, stock, Worcestershire sauce, and chilli flakes. Bring to the boil.

Cover and simmer, stirring regularly, for 30 minutes.

Add the sweetcorn and chickpeas, cover again, and simmer for another 30 minutes, by which time the chicken should be cooked. Don’t forget to stir regularly, or the beans will stick to the bottom of the pan!

Optional – mix the flour and water in a bowl, until they form a paste. Stir a ladleful of the stew liquid into the paste, and then stir that into the stew to thicken it up. Cook for another 5 minutes, constantly stirring.

Serve!

Tidy!

Tidy Savings

It’s fairly close-fought this week, but ASDA take it at £8.59.

Tesco came in second at £8.98, only pennies ahead of Morrisons’ £9.02. Sainsbury’s occupy their favourite last place, at £9.89 which still isn’t ridiculous.

Tesco suffered through being the only retailer not to have their own brand of Worcestershire Sauce, and offering only their own brand of chickpeas, rather than the popular (and cheaper) KTC brand that the other three carry. They easily could’ve won this week, otherwise.

Tidy Tweaks

As ever with Ifits, the entire thing is a tweak. You could use another type of beans along with tinned tomatoes or passata instead of the baked beans.

Not a fan of sweetcorn? Leave it out! Same goes for the chickpeas, really.

If you’re diet-conscious, you could use different thickening agents. Nell swears by lentils, cooked down to a thick pulp. Similarly some Okra could do the trick, or you’ll see I’ve used Polenta in the past.

You could use any meat really. Sausages would work particularly well. [Insert obligatory Chorizo option here].

You could also leave the meat out entirely. I’m intrigued by the idea of trying Haloumi in this dish. If you do give that a try, I’d leave the salt out. You may also need to add it later in the process, with the spices coating the onions and peppers rather than the cheese itself.

Cool it down with a stir of natural yogurt, or just leave the chilli flakes out all together!